Work

WARNING: Massive Incoming Tech Buzzwords Ahead.

You've been warned.

Cash & Keep

Midway through a Cash & Keep Order

Cash & Keep was built on Ruby on Rails 4.2 for Sidewalk Pro (18M raised). Since college campus textbook buyback is so profitable, textbook resellers like Sidewalk want to buyback as many books as they can (without offering higher prices). Cash & Keep solves this by allowing students to 'sell' their books as early as the start of the semester and get cash immediately for it (in exchange for the commitment to deliver it to Sidewalk once the semester is over). By capturing these buyback sales early, Sidewalk no longer is competing with the likes of Amazon, Chegg etc. and can acquire significantly more buyback inventory at low prices. A win-win for both students and Sidewalk.

Singlehandedly, I built the entire Ruby on Rails backend while my collaborators implemented the Single-Page-App (SPA) frontend using AngularJS. To get a sense of my 'taste' in software as a backend developer, here is a listing of the key gems I choose for the project:

timecop --- for any apps with features involving wall-clock time timecop is an *essential* gem for testing these features in rspec

For greenfield Rails development this is roughly the stack I would use (unless the project requirements called for something very different). I love suggestions though, so if you have any please email me with them!

GAIN Fitness Web Properties

GAIN Fitness Landing Page

While consulting with GAIN Fitness (2.8M raised), I was the steward of their entire web presence. The site was built with Ruby on Rails on the backend. Specific things I built include a multi-page complex signup flow (AngularJS), a monthly billing system with Stripe, multiple marketing mini-sites, integrating the customer database with the PipeDrive CRM's API, setting up a framework to use Google Tag Manager's analytics system along with building numerous admin tools to facilitate matching client's to trainer's based on interests & location.

Moovd

Moovd Video Creation Dashboard

As one of my earlier clients, Moovd was a bootstrapped SaaS app by a non-technical solopreneur. When I came in the project was 80% finished and *very buggy*. It was primarily built by an outsourced team in the Philippines. I cleaned up the codebase, added tests and finished the app according to spec. It was a Ruby on Rails app with a Stripe billing system, OAuth social sign in and a Referral system integration (Ambassador).

Scholasphere

Scholasphere Landing Page

Scholasphere was my first client (which I am very grateful for). They were selected as part of the University of Southern California's first statup incubator program(link to vsi2). Using their seed funding, they brought me on to round out their technical team and build their MVP product. While the company eventually shuttered due to lack of traction, I am still a believer in the idea (a common app for scholarships).

Internet Enabled Outlets

Control Your Blender With Your iPhone!

Using a native iPhone app, from anywhere in the world users are able to configure whether power will flow to the 120V devices plugged in to these special outlets. In addition to home automation use cases, this allows users to reduce the vampire draw of their devices to 0.

The QuantifiedSpeed Weightlifting Analyzer

In athletics "speed kills". Research has shown that the optimal way to train for explosive acceleration is by performing repetitions as quickly as possible using maximal force. Until recently, strength coaches and athletes have had to rely on qualitative observations to measure rep speed. This is obviously non-ideal. QuantifiedSpeed aims to change that, precisely measuring peak+average velocity and acceleration of weightlifting repetitions.

USB Human Interface Device (HID) Hacking

Leaving your laptop unattended in a public place is usually a bad idea. In the videos below I show how using a $15 microcontroller emulating a USB keyboard and konboot an attacker could quickly and efficiently take advantage.